Jason Garrett offers Troy Aikman story en route to defending Dak’s accuracy

Dallas Cowboys’ head coach Jason Garrett told a story about him and Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman during Wednesday’s press conference.

Garrett was asked about Aikman’s concerns with Dak Prescott’s accuracy as a passer. Before giving a direct response to the question, Garrett told a story from “a long time ago” when he and Aikman were invited to instruct a group of 8 to 10-year-old quarterbacks at Jay Novacek’s football camp.

“There was one guy, little Jimmy, he was probably 8 years old, throwing the ball. He wasn’t really throwing it the way we wanted him to throw it,” Garrett said. “So I turned to [Aikman] and said, ‘Hey, 8-ball, what would you tell little Jimmy over there.’”

Aikman responded: “When these kids are born, some guys can throw it and some guys can’t. I’d move him to wide receiver.”

The media room erupted in laughter, as Garrett underlined the fact that “that really wasn’t the spirit of the camp.”

Garrett, however, then pivoted to Prescott.

“I do believe you can improve in every aspect of your game, certainly some people when the doctor smacks them on the rear end, they have talents to do certain things. Some of that is throwing the ball, some of that is throwing accurately. But I do think you can refine all of those things,” he said. “I think a lot of it has to do with footwork, getting yourself in a really good position to throw. Troy was a great example of that. I think as his career went on you saw him become more and more accurate because he just refined his technique. He was a great passer to begin with. But the more he understood the game, the more refined he was technically, particularly with his lower body. He put himself in a great position to throw the ball where he wanted to.”

There are certainly areas where you can improve, even though there are probably some innate skills that people have.